The Snow Queen (1993)
The Snow Queen is a 1993 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The Snow Queen is the 5th Disney film in the era known as the Disney Renaissance. The film was directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, and is based on the tale of Hans Christian Andersen. The voice cast features Kirsten Dunst, Elijah Wood, Naomi Watts, Natalie Portman, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Christina Ricci, Alan Rickman, Jodie Foster, George Clooney, Jeff Goldblum, Elizabeth Perkins, John Goodman, Tom Hanks and Dom DeLuise. It tells a story about a young eight year old girl named Gerda, whose quest is to go all the way from southern Sweden to Northern Sweden and search for childhood friend, Kai. Meanwhile for Kai, he happens to stumble across the Snow Queen named Sigrid, who has been in solitude for years and needs to earn Kai's trust in order for Sigrid to have a kind heart. Along Gerda's way, she meets three talking animals. A large, yet friendly polar-bear named Klaus, a smart & wisecracking beaver named Josef, and the agile hare named Magnus. Gerda also meets other children who goes along with her journey, such as the young, tough, yet kind and nice knife-holding robber-girl named Katrine, and two fun-loving kids who are royal siblings, named Prince Viktor & Princess Ingrid. The kids only need to avoid several cutthroat robbers, wolves and the man that's following them, named Jorgen. It marks the 4th time that Alan Menken has done the score & songs on a Disney animated film, following previous films like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast & Aladdin. It also marks as the first Disney animated film to have two composers for the movie, first being Alan Menken, and the other being James Horner, which was the latter's first and probably only Disney animated film to work on in the Disney Renaissance. Box office The Snow Queen was released on November, 24, 1993 to a positive reaction from critics, who praised the film for its music, characters, story and animation. At the time in 1993, it finished its theatrical run as the highest-grossing release of 1993, (overtaking Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park from Universal) and became the highest-grossing animated film at the time with $1.382 billion worldwide, massively outgrossing the previous Disney films, ”The Little Mermaid "Beauty and the Beast" & "Aladdin"’s worldwide grosses all combined. It kept the record as the highest grossing animated film for 11 years until Disney’s own ”The Wild Swans” in 2004. It also was the highest grossing film overall at the time for four years until James Cameron’s Titanic. Original theatrical run At the time of it’s release on it’s opening weekend, it grossed $40.8 million - which at the time marked it as the fourth/fifth biggest opening overall. The Snow Queen’s $40 million opening was almost four times the opening of Beauty and the Beast, and more than twice the opening of Aladdin. ''It was one of the highest sums for a Disney animated film at the time, alongside ''The Lion King. It also earned a rare "A+" rating from Cinemascore. It held at the top for long, resulting in extraordinary legs. By the end of its original theatrical run, it had earned $511 million, being the highest grossing 1993 film in North America. Outside of North America, the film grossed $871 million, for a worldwide total of $1.382 billion worldwide, making this the first animated film in history to reach over a billion at the box office. Later around the mid 2000's & early 2010's, the film got re-released in theaters, including an IMAX-release and a 3D-release. The re-releases boosted it domestic gross from $511 million to $625 million and it's worldwide gross from $1.382 million to $1.823 billion, (making it one of the few blockbusters from the 90's to earn a 3D-convertion) Section heading Write the first section of your page here. Section heading Write the second section of your page here.